Geological models are used to image regions of the Earth's subsurface, for example, in applications related to the oil and gas industry. In geological modeling, a geological region may be represented by a “surface-based” model or a “volume-based” model. A surface-based model may include a plurality of independently controllable surfaces of horizons and/or faults (e.g., with no interconnecting mesh between surfaces). A volume-based model may include surfaces with a 3D volumetric grid or mesh interconnecting the different geological surfaces.
Volume-based models are generally more efficient than surface-based models for executing flow and/or geomechanical simulations (e.g., used to determine petrophysical properties, such as porosity and permeability of the layers of the models) because volume-based models implicitly generate a plurality of horizons simultaneously and automatically ensure the horizons do not overlap, whereas surface-based models generate horizons one-at-a-time and cannot automatically prevent overlapping layers. However, surface-based models are generally more efficient than volume-based models for locally editing the models, for example, when simulation results differ from actual geological measurements. In surface-based models, control nodes are independently controllable so local edits remain generally contained within a single surface or defined region of a surface. In contrast, nodes of volume-based models are interconnected via a volumetric mesh, so local edits generally permeate throughout the entire model and require a global remodeling to unify the local edit to the remaining regions of the mesh.
Accordingly, there is a longstanding need in the art to gain the benefits of both surface-based and volume-based models.